Tempe Gorge Crisis (Allies)

[TinyPirate]

Copy of an AAR I wrote on Quarter To Three.
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Due to 'popular' request, I thought I'd do an AAR on Conquest of the Aegean, a pausable-real time operational-level wargame from Panther Games, published by Matrix.
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Tempe Gorge Crisis - 17 April, 1941, 1200hrs. Greece

Briefing: The Allies are being pushed back by the Axis advance. The Allies, lead by NZ Brigadier Allen must hold the Germans back for at least two days and prevent them from seizing Larissa and driving on south. A natural barrier to German movement is the river and terrain in the area, we must use these advantages to prevent the reinforced mountain division overwhelming our allied infantry brigade.

On day 3 I am to exit via the town at the bottom of the map between 0001 and 12000. This will generate the bulk of my points to win the game. The rest come from holding on to the bridges and main road for as long as possible.


Situation on the ground



We're in a pretty tough position. We've got three under strength battalions against what is reportedly an entire division. We benefit from a total of 16 25lb'er artillery guns, but other than a few mortars and a couple of AT units, we're very short on heavier equipment. Reinforcements of a company or so of light armour are due on day 2.

Our initial tactical choices are very limited. almost all of the troops are wedged between the river and the hills to the south. Two bridges on the eastern end of the position are primed and ready to explode, but only if our boys can hang on long enough to pull the switch at the right time. Other crossings are ferry crossings only, but this doesn't mean they can't be used by the enemy, and it doesn't mean they can't be blown either. We'll see what we can do about this problem.




Here you can see the situation in the north. Missing off to the north east, on the northern side of the river is a reinforced battalion who will almost certainly be able to cross a bridge near their position unopposed, whereupon they will likely head down the southern side of the river (their only choice of route) and into my boys. Maybe we can ambush them with my company pushed out to the North East. However, that company is unlikely to be able to stop the enemy's advance and thus might get stuck behind enemy lines pretty quickly. Tricky.

On the left of the image you can see the full order of battle for the brave Allies.


The Plan



I feel like I've been dealt a hand of cards from a stacked deck! This is going to be an extremely tough battle. I'm going to risk some quick move orders to reposition my troop slightly. I don't want to hang around too close to the river or it may be impossible to save my boys when the inevitable crossings occur. I'm under no illusions that we'll be able to hold off the Germans for very long. We just need to hold them off for long enough.

My plan, by the numbers:

1) I'm sending one company to go watch the western most ferry, with orders to delay any enemy it encounters by stepping back through a series of positions. I'm hoping it will stay alive long enough to keep feeding me info on enemy movements, should any come this way. And I expect they will try it.

2) Central Btn. will be re-organised with delay orders as well. I want them to be fairly tough and fairly reliable on their own without me interfeering. Once we've lost the river things will move very quickly and with order delays and whatnot I won't be able to organise a good defence fast enough. Delay orders mean that at least I know the pass will be held for a period of time while I recover the rest of my force and set up new positions further down the main road. In this area I also jiggle the position of the mortars a little.

3) I reposition the units here a little to try and provide them with a bit better cover and better escape routes when I need to pull them back. In particular I get the AT guns off their very exposed spot on the hill and into a little cover, which I hope will keep them alive for longer.

4) I pull all the units to close to the bridges with orders to 'deny crossing' for the two closest. I am hoping this will be enough to set the bridges off when the enemy start to take a heavy interest, but you can't be too sure. My company of engineers and infantry in the town should make it a tough nut for the approaching armour column, and I'll have them shot up from the flanks with the remaining AT unit and other infantry too.

The rest of my plan involves hammering the enemy with artillery if they get too close to the bridges to try and dissuade them from continuing, to slow them down, and to hopefully cause as many casualties as possible. I'm not too concerned about dumping a lot of ammo on the bad guys as I'm not even sure I'll be able to keep my heavy guns going for day 2, and I'm likely to get a resupply sometimes in the evening anyway.

[TinyPirate]

Thanks for the encouragement! Well, yes, the orders delay is an interesting part of the game and it's going to kill me in this AAR, I can feel it, hehe. I'll explain that a bit with some background on how giving orders works in the game, and in the orders delay (which is different from the delay order!).

Ok, so, Order Delay. Below is a picture of the Major General unit in charge of another battle I completed the other day. He represents the player, essentially.



This guy is deployed in direct command of two MG companies and an AT company. He is, actually, in charge of the entire force I have on the map, but as I've sliced off elements of the command (mostly Btn sized chunks) and given them separate orders, he's only been left with those three units to be directly in charge of. Whatever I order him to do, those other units will fall in to do as well. In the example there, I ordered him to move on to a hill and make a defensive, which he did, with the HQ unit sensibly behind the line units!

You'll see some stats on the left which give us a picture of his skill as a leader. He's pretty good actually, and this will mean that he will use his troops well in battle. For example, if a skilled general is using the 'delay' order, they will successfully order their units to leap frog back from a start line to a defensive line, and they'll have each company move before they get too engaged, or risk being caught behind enemy lines.

A poor commander might cock this complex move up and, for example, not tell a lead element to move before it's surrounded and cut off by an enemy.

He has some other stats. 'Capacity' is how many hived-off units I can command. If I give individual orders to each company for the entire map, it's like the Commander of the Division is telling every single company personally what to do, it would be impossible and if I go above the 'capacity' stat then my orders would start to incur penalties. Best to tell the btn. commanders what to do and leave them (the AI) to move the troops, shake them out and charge, etc etc.

'Load' is the current load on the commander. It's under 20, so no delay incurred.

'Unit Delay' is how long it takes before an order I give to the unit (er, to myself?!) gets processed and handed down to the units that I command. So If I tell my unit to pull back, it will take around 70 minutes for that order to be written up, passed to the MG companies and the AT company, and for them to just begin their move.

If I order him to move, and he has sub units under him, then the force delay comes into effect. For example, you might have a Brigadier in charge of an infantry btn. and an armoured btn. and a support btn. If he had the same stats as the pictured unit, and we ordered an attack, then it would take around 120 minutes for that order to result in moving units on the map. The order needs to be taken in by the HQ element "thought" about, then the plan for the troops sent to the Btns, and then the Btn. HQ's need to think about where to move their companies. 120 minutes after giving the orders you see all the move orders lay out on the map, including where the form-up point will be (if you've not specified it), where the re-org area will be (post assault), and which units have been ordered to assault, sit in reserve, sit in support positions (eg, MG companies), etc etc.

Changing the aggressiveness settings and the casualty threshold for all of the above mentioned orders (attacks, defends and delays), as well as other orders, determines how long a unit will hold on, try it's luck in the attack, or how long before it bugs out to the next fall back position, etc.

NOW, what does all this mean? Well, 2 hours is a LONG time to have to wait for stuff to happen, right? Well, the time is quicker for mechanised forces, but even so, even sixty minutes can take an eternity when you've got Germans swarming over the bridge. Factor in fatigued units, distance from commanders and you've got issues.

In COTA, just like in real life, the attacker is trying to get inside my decision cycle and render my orders irrelevant and ineffective. If I've ordered a Btn. back to defend a position and they don't act on the order before Germans have occupied it, then that unit will be in really deep doo-doo. The Btn. commander may be smart enough to call off the move, but chances are they will have got themselves out of place and they'll be caught on the hop. Defence is hard in COTA, because reacting always puts you many minutes behind the plans of the attacker. Order delay is a striking lesson in exactly why the German army was able to capture so much of Europe, and the Soviet Union, so quickly. It's not uncommon in COTA to see a unit lose all effectiveness as it tries to respond to orders that no longer match the facts on the ground. One always hopes that unit belongs to the enemy!

The trick then is to keep one step ahead, either through anticipating the attacker's moves, or if you're the attacker, through constantly pushing the battle forward, hopefully in surprising ways for the enemy.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, that's why my central Btn has been given orders to do a "Delay". This will result in the boss putting probably 1 company forward, and two at a fall-back position I've specified. When the company that's forward gets pressed too hard (I've set casualty threshold to medium - I don't want them hanging around too long), the forward company will go back, bypass the second position and head straight for the third, digging in when it gets there. And so the leap-frogging will happen, all the way back to Larissa if necessary. I'm hoping this order will give me the space and time to martial my forces that remain once the river is breached and to then put them into new positions further down the road.

I would give all of my forces long chains of orders now, but I'm not sure when or how the enemy will arrive, so at first I will be forced to react. The trick will be in choosing a time to bug out, and then a place to make my next stand while central force covers my ass.

OK, enough spam from me.

[TinyPirate]

Day 1. 1800 hours

Well the Krauts are starting to push, and push hard. Have a look



By the numbers...

1) On the left, my coy. there has just this minute decide to pull back to its next blocking position (marked in blue by me). I think they could have held on a bit longer, but what can you do?! Confirmed a reinforced btn. on its way!

Oh, if you're wondering, the black boxes show the last position of spotted units. I have set the UI to display only "current" intelligence, so when we lose sight of units they vanish and become a black box like that.

2) The central blocking force in the valley is in position. Two coy's up front, one in reserve with the commander. Dug in. Guns have also been repositioned slightly. The other central btn. (next to the number 2) have been shooting up the force advancing on the ferry there. The ease with which units seem able to use ferries to get across the river is a little annoying and my only niggle so far. Anyway, the Germans seem to have committed quite a lot to that crossing. Which is annoying, as I am somewhat weak there.

3) My blocking company has engaged approaching Germans, hit them a bit, and is now pulling back to its next position (behind another river). I have covered there retreat with a little of my remaining artillery, and it seems to have slowed the Germans enough to allow my coy. to disengage. The rest of Nor-Force is dug in and covering the front of Tempe, ready to hit the Germans when they break through my blocking coy's. final position.

[TinyPirate]

Day 1. 2000 hours

The sun has now set, and it will soon get dark, giving everyone more freedom to move than they might otherwise enjoy. Soon I'll be thinking about redeploying.. But I have another hour of twilight to deal with first.

Thought I'd do this one by region, as the global perspective hasn't changed much, but there have been some changes in each location.

Nor-Force



North Force has had no major challenges at all. No sign of any attempted bridge crossing. The blocking company managed to very successfully pull back and then redeploy behind a bridge. Oh, I used mil symbols this time! The other symbol indicates whether a unit is dug in, deployed, or moving. My units are dug in or deployed, the approaching Germans are moving.

The next blocking position is behind another river, and by then I figured the unit would be pretty tired so I have ordered it to pull right back once it's taking too much fire there.

The dark blue line indicates current unit commander (me), the light blue indicates it's orbat commander, which is the "21st (Auckland) NZ Infantry Btn. HQ". If I were to order the coy. to 're-attach' it would fall back under the command of the HQ unit.


Cen-Force



Centre force is having a bit of a hard time. You can see here a Coy. has been forced out of it's position (on the right) and is returning to it now. All units on the map have been blazing away at each other, and the East-most company has also had some air strikes called in on them (I think). Air strikes really scare the hell out of your boys and make it likely for them break and retreat for a short while.

(Thanks for the comments. An AAR is the next-best thing to playing multiplayer for me. Hehe. I kinda wish I'd finished my PIRATE aar for Crusader Kings, when I ran the little island of Corsica. I wrote it all in-character. It's probably still on the Paradox boards somewhere. Unfortunately, not much happens when you're Corsica hehehe.

EDIT: Oh, I found it! Pirates of the Med)

[TinyPirate]

Day 2. 0001 hours

On the left, the coy. there has been heavily shot up by arty and air power, but has managed to fall back to its first fall back position. It's rather shaken up though. Units seem to be pouring over the ferry in the west. It's probably time to start thinking about pulling everything out before any more forces get too engaged and the Germans bypass my main line, or pin it and encircle.

In the centre, despite heavy shelling, it seems the ferry there has been used successfully by the enemy, and with it dark, we can't be too sure where he is. I thought this might happen, but it was a better deal than just leaving a coy. right in there to be destroyed.

In the north, the picture is like this:


Nor-Force



Despite my boys being dug-in in Tempe, the approach of a motorcycle unit threw them for a six and forced them back further into the town. The engineers on the bridge got a bit freaked out too. I have no idea why ...There's also an enemy unit on the other side of the bridge it seems.

My delaying coy. gave up any hope of moving to it's penultimate position, due to the closeness of the enemy, and instead decided to pull right back to its final destination. Fair call says I.

[TinyPirate]

Day 2, 0002 Hours

The GREAT REPLAN. Otherwise known as "AARG RUN AWAY, RUN AWAAAAYY".

I've given my Nor Force (now given command of the Engineers up there as well) and my Cen Force (now in command of C coy. at the other bridge) orders to pull back and set up a series of positions for a delay order. The positions bring them in line with the force controlled by Allen and already in the gap between the hills.

Arty guns have been ordered to pull back as well. I won't be able to see the enemy before it's too late, so best to get them into nice new, safe positions for dawn.

Orders delay suggests most units will be on the move within about 45 minutes. Which I can live with. They have some distance to cover, especially Nor Force, but I'm still hopeful most units will be in position by morning.

My main fear remains the western ferry, but the coy. over there hasn't been molested for a while, so fingers crossed they are not heading his way and are perhaps trying to sweep into my left. By the time they reach their goal, with luck, all they'll find is empty foxholes.

Below is the map, with each position in the fall back plan labelled and coloured. As you can see, if they do try and head down the valley they will be facing pretty solid lines of our boys.

[TinyPirate]

Day 2, 0200 Hours

Just in time, it seems, my boys are on the move out of the front lines...



Note the situation. On the left, an infantry company of some form has managed to get across the ferry in the dark. In the centre, the red ! marks the position of a sighter German unit, more are likely to be behind.

The North East is quite an interesting spot. Bombardment of town has pushed both of my units back and the bridge and town was quickly taken by Germans. No matter, minutes later the units there had their orders to slip out and south. You can see all the routes plotted out and the units under way.

Thankfully, my arty has got itself into its new fall-back position and I'm already using it to try and screen the withdrawal. Without that screen those mechanised units would never let my foot-bound soldiers out of their grips.

Scarily, the AI threw me for a loop with a sneaky rear-attack, with their probable line of advance marked in red. I'm pleased I had that blocking coy. retreat to the woods there. I had in the back of my mind that those lads would provide some 'just in case' backup, and they did, forcing two armoured coys. and I think an infantry coy. with a surprise that was enough for force one to retreat.

The friendly Kiwi coy. there just got its orders to pull out, so the arty is going to try and buy them the time they need to make it out in one piece. I hope the Germans will be too busy dodging shells and consolidating their gains to grab any of my moving units by their short and curlies.

[TinyPirate]

Day 2, 0500 Hours



ARG! Dawn! Damn you!

My central force is jiggling about, but mostly pretty close to its position. My northern force, as you can see, is strung out, and marching a long the side of a hill while Germans in the valley below look up and go "LOL WUT?"

I'm going to have to lay down a massive amount of artillery to keep the Germans from putting up a lot of effective fire, and I don't have that much to spare. Only plus for me is that my guns are now pulled back and pretty close to the supply depot - if it can even keep up with their demands!

[TinyPirate]

Day 2, 1500 Hours

A painful morning and afternoon was had by all.



Well, Nor Force has been hammered pretty hard. In hindsight I should have plotted a course for them way over the back of the hill. They were going to be slogging it by foot either way. But at least they've slowed down the Germans a bit, after all, who doesn't want to stop for a bit of a turkey shoot?

The NE enemy has managed to catch up with Nor Force, although I've held them back a bit through a pile of arty. Thank god I'm so close to my supply depot.

The Western enemy has, as hoped, taken the river road to join the main body. While this bodes badly for later, it's a hell of a lot better than if they'd taken the longer but more dangerous (for me) South and Western route into my rear.

The rest of the Germans have been crossing the river in force. I've been keeping the large concentrations saturated in artillery fire, along with any that looked like threatening my boys.

In a good example of how order delay works against you, you'll note the little blue arrow in the center. That's about 3 different coys. all trying to get to the same damn patch of hill for their 'delay' order. I've hard to re-order them back a bit, meanwhile, the enemy coy. in there gets free shots at somewhat surprised Aussies. Thankfully, two mortar units are within range of the enemy coy. and have been keeping its head down.

Germans must be quite experienced units, takes a lot of arty to break them or force them back.

Hmm, my delay plan has gone a bit awry. In places it's fine (where I've got the blue curves, units are dug in), but Nor Force have had to be issued entirely new orders, placing them well to the rear of the current force.

Come nightfall it will be a big re-org time. Nor Force will probably go straight for the exit, the rest are more rested and better able to fight I figure. Hell, I might group them ALL and go for one big series of delay orders. MM.. naw.

Oh, notice the cavalry (literally), has arrived! B Sqn. 2 NZ Cav Div has popped in as reinforcement and is in the middle of its pre-assault re-org (the blocky icon over it, it's on the right). I'm sending it assaulting up the road to hopefully cover Nor Force's retreat a bit.

It's rather light, on the left you can see it's equipment sheet - Vicker's light tanks and Daimler armoured cars. The heaviest armourments are the 50-cals on the ACs, they should give the enemy a little surprise, but I will not be able to afford to leave this unit hanging around for long, they will be vulnerable to infantry guns and any of the German ACs I suspect.

(Jasper, yeah I almost wonder if it would have been better to pull that northern unit back altogether. But then you still have to find somewhere to put them that doesn't mean they've enveloped from the flank and frontally. It's a tough problem. If I had ordered their pull-out at about 6pm Day 1 I could have had them moving and clear all night and that might have been a bit more safe!)

[TinyPirate]

Day 2, 1630 Hours



CHARGEEE! Well, the cav charged, and hit nothing. Which is.. ok I guess. I've ordered them to do a bit of delaying in the retreat route of Nor Force, with losses set to 'low', so hopefully they'll shoot up the enemy a bit, but scoot as soon as they get any serious return fire.

Pleasingly, Nor Force seems to have disengaged from the enemy successfully. It's moving on at a good clip now and not being constantly forced to 'take cover'. The enemy seem to be concentrating through the town where the little arrow is.

On my NNW sector the enemy have tried to form up for an assault at least twice, each time I've dropped all 16 guns on rapid fire, and sometimes mortars too. This seems to have had the desired effect and you can see a red down-arrow, indicating an AT unit routing, and a couple of yellow down arrows indicating retreats.

In COTA you really, REALLY don't want your form up point to be in view of the enemy. Your units are quite vulnerable at their form up point and hitting those areas with artillery will stop any chance of a successful attack.

I'm no military vet, but I serve (badly) in the New Zealand Territorial Force (our version of the US reserves) and having been done the whole form-up point thing as a baggy, I can well imagine how completely unnerving and destructive it would be to be shelled at that time.

The pleasant thing about hitting the Krauts there near that bridge is not only are they forming up, but other units are still crossing. It will take them some time to sort that mess out, time I can use to get my boys into safety come nightfall.

[TinyPirate]

Day 2, 2000 Hours

Night is coming! And we're all still (mostlyish) alive!

In this image I've got the LOS area tool going, so please let me explain before you wonder what the grey mush is.



I noticed the Cav unit wasn't up to much. I clicked the LOS Area tool and clicked on the unit. It appears my lads have managed to park in the only ditch for miles around and can see about as far as I can piss.

I have ordered them back to 'defend' another point, which, as you can see from my click, offfers better LOS options. White is easily seen, greyish is can see in the distance (I think). Mind you, it will be dark soon. Hmm.

One of the great advantages of mechanised units is their speed on acting on orders. Only 30 minutes delay for that cav units.

In other areas the Germans continue to push south, slowly, despite my arty blazing away. The Germans seem to be treating the arty as a minor annoyance, whereas my guys drop throw their hands in the air and scream off into the sunset at the merest incoming whistle. I wonder if perhaps I'm seeing occasional air strikes, but I can't be sure.

I'll give it another few minutes and then order new move and defend orders. With luck we'll again see our boys bail out over night, and have them ready for more pew pew by dawn. That being said, I have to exit most of my force by Day 3, 1200 hours. So perhaps it's about time for a big long slog back to Larissa. Come midnight all available points for my two remaining objective towns will be had (although I might lose a couple of points by leaving early), and my last task will be to get the hell out of dodge.

[TinyPirate]

Note: Some of my comments are directed at people on the other board. I make some assumptions about the rules too - hehe.

[06 Maestro]

Excellent AAR, TinyPirate! A whole lotta detail there.

I would bet that what is shaking your guys up are the air strikes. It takes long barrages to get troops to abbandon defensive positions, but I have seen air strikes make them run instantly-especially if they are already worn down.

[Deathtreader]

Hi,

I agree...... a really good AAR!! Thanks for sharing [8D]

Rob.

[TinyPirate]

Day 2, 2030 Hours

THE GREAT REPLAN has begun!



Step one - Grab the "lose" btns. and move them down towards Larissa. This includes the coy. left hanging around on the left flank. It spotted a couple of German coys, but not much happened. I want to get it racing south as fast as possible.

Step two - get my arty to unload heavily on any Kraut that moves for the next hour or so, so as to keep their heads down as my guys get ready to move out. Once they're underway, I'll bug my arty out (it will respond much quicker to my direct orders than to coy's whose orders need to go through the btn. staff, etc.

Step three - try and extract my central backup btn. that has been on delay orders since day 1.

Step four - cover their final retreat with the cavalry and arty (which I hope to get to Larissa quick enough.

[TinyPirate]

Day 3, 0300 Hours

All my forces were disengaged by nightfall (2200) and are mostly half way between their old positions and Larissa. Most of the arty has set up half way between with an AT coy. for company. Being motorized, they'll catch up and push ahead of the main body as soon as it's time.

My blocking force is.. blocking!



Between heavy arty barrages and my units being in prepared positions I've repulsed the German's early attacks. I'll need to get these guys moving pretty promptly, but for now they're doing a good job.

On the left my coy. met a MG coy. on the road to Larissa and had a shoot out. They ran away. Some quick arty work prevented any enemy chase, but I'll probably end up with some Germans in Larissa with me by mid-morning by the looks of it!

[TinyPirate]

Day 3, 0500 Hours



Dawn breaks to views of more Germans crowding down onto my positions. Fortunately, a number of units there, combined with artillery, seem to be surprising the Krauts and holding them off or forcing them back.

The exclamation mark shows my supply depot which I forgot about. OOPS! I order it to hurry back.

On the hill my Cav provide a bit of fire support. At 0530 my withdraw orders finally reach the front line units and they begin to pull back. Hopefully I can keep the Germans off their heels with more liberal applications of artillery.

Unfortunately, my artillery units are very tired. This will make moving them and using them further pretty difficult. If they break for a rest before making it to Larissa we're in trouble.

[TinyPirate]

Day 3, 0800 Hours

FOUR HOURS TO GET TO THE EXIT.



Now we're about in full-on RUN AWAY mode. If I issue anything other than 'exit' orders at 'quickest' and 'fastest speed' I might not get enough units off the map. My arty should get to Larissa quick enough (motorised) and this will be all that can hold off the probing Krauts.

Bit annoyed I missed the obvious road over the hill and now a German is there taking pot shots at my lads. Still, I just need to get off the map now, nothing fancy really. RUN AWAY, RUNN AWAYYYY.

Sadly, Nor-Force took a break half way down - too tired from all their forced marches. Issued new exit orders. Hope they will get the feck on with it and get off the map!

[TinyPirate]

Day 3, 1000 Hours



In the north, It's going badly for the blocking force. Their CO made a clean get away. The coys.. however.. didn't quite. They are having a fairly bad time of it, but do seem to be somewhat distracting the enemy. Not sure I could have arranged much better, considering how many Germans there are and how tired my boys are feeling.

My Cav, along with arty, has seemingly distracted the flanking force - but has also be en ordered to exit ASAP. At least it kept the two enemy coy's there away from my lads, letting them hit the road and get on their way.

Looks like one of my arty units and an AT unit has already driven of the map. Almost all of my units will be on their way shortly... well.. I hope so. 3km per hour on the road? Eeep.. it's possible the majority of my infantry won't make it!

Oh, units are set to 'small' icons for this picture.

[TinyPirate]

Day 3, 1100 Hours

ARRGG GET OFF THE FRICK'N MAP!



Looks like our delaying force, aka "Please make yourself obvious and distract the enemy with your screams" has done its job.

In the South a few units have exited, but no where near enough. I'm sort of worried that I've not issued the orders correctly and we're going to have a bunch of units hanging around come 1200 going "LOL WUT?"

GAH! COME ON!